


darkness may be wrought by love

by DarkSideEmissary



Category: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, M/M, genderbending reincarnation, reincarnation is a tricky thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-19 23:50:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8228981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkSideEmissary/pseuds/DarkSideEmissary
Summary: It was true that Mina's resemblance to Elizabeta was uncanny. It was true that Mina seemed to know things that could be known only to Elizabeta's reincarnation. Yet it is the soul that reincarnates, not the body. It was all too easy to forget that a vampire's devil-granted powers of hypnosis and suggestion may work subconsciously, given the right circumstances.
Mina's resemblance to Elizabeta was uncanny, yet Mina did not bear Elizabeta's soul.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the prompt: author's choice, author's choice, reincarnation can get really confusing

By the time Vlad Dracula realised his mistake, it was almost too late.

It was true that Mina's resemblance to Elizabeta was uncanny. It was true that Mina seemed to know things that could be known only to Elizabeta's reincarnation. Yet it is the soul that reincarnates, not the body. It was all too easy to forget that a vampire's devil-granted powers of hypnosis and suggestion may work subconsciously, given the right circumstances.

Mina's resemblance to Elizabeta was uncanny, yet Mina did not bear Elizabeta's soul.

Free at last from the enchantment of which neither of them had known, her face twisted in disgust, fear and horror as tears crept down her cheeks. "Unclean, unclean," she muttered. "Oh God, why am I to be damned?"

A dutiful husband, Jonathan wrapped her in his arms, yet the look on his face was blank shock turning into wretchedness. His entire body shook like a leaf in the wind.

It was so clear to Vlad, now, that beneath the learned mannerisms of a modern English gentleman, Jonathan's essence and native bearing was Elizabeta's, as Mina's had never truly been. He remembered, now, the intensity of the interest and, yes, possession, that he had felt for his foreign guest, before the sight of Mina's portrait drove all other objectives from his mind.

_(How dare you touch him. He belongs to me.)_

Jonathan was staring at him over Mina's shoulder, and in his eyes was longing and repulsion, hate and love. "My prince," he spat, bitter and sharp. His embrace of Mina tightened.

Vlad bowed his head. He was tempted, so tempted, to press Jonathan's mouth to a bleeding cut on his chest just as he had done to Mina. With the vampire's blood in his veins; unholy sacrament; and with his dark master's voice in his head, Jonathan would have to be his.

Mina was still weeping. Mina, whom he had thought was his love and who was, even now, blood of his blood, kin of his kin.

The decision must be Jonathan's, no matter the ache in Vlad's long-dead heart. The decision must be Jonathan's, as it would have been Mina's if only her will had not been subsumed by his unconscious spell, no matter that he had never sought permission from his other creations.

Even when he still breathed, his respect and regard for Elizabeta had been the exception rather than the rule.

"I died for you. Don't you have anything to say?" Jonathan's voice shook, anger warring with despair and fear.

"They said that your soul could not be saved." Vlad lifted his arm, hand open in invitation. "Stay with me, Elizabeta. We can have eternity."

"No!" cried Mina, and tore herself from her husband's embrace. "Jonathan, you mustn't!"

"When she dies, she will rise and be reborn as a vampire. Nothing can change that now."

Jonathan's eyes hardened as anger won the war within him. "Very well. I will stay for her, with her. For her, do you understand?"

"I understand," said Vlad, his hand still extended in offering. Mina reached for Jonathan as he stepped forward, grasped his sleeve and shook her head, but Jonathan gently disentangled her fingers and kissed them, then took the final few steps and clasped Vlad's hand.

Without protest and with only a moment's hesitation, he lowered his mouth to the newly-opened gash on Vlad's chest and lapped at the blood whilst the vampire stroked his hair.

Mina glared in helpless fury, kept silent and still by her master's unspoken command.

Jonathan, Elizabeta, Jonathan would stay for Mina, at first. Forever must be long enough to remind him, her, him of what they had once had and would have again.


End file.
